In this issue: BUYING FRIENDS PROPORTIONAL JUSTICE HANDHELD WIND ANTI-SOCIAL NETWORKS And much, much more... --------------------------------- BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL BRAINMAIL *Feeding hungry minds since 2004 --------------------------------- Issue 59 - January 2010 --------------------------------- Brainmail is a free monthly (usually) newsletter dedicated to current and future trends, statistics and other nuggets of information. To subscribe, or unsubscribe, to the world's best cerebral snackfood visit http://brainmail.nowandnext.com/ Tell the whole world about brainmail - forward this to zillions of friends. --------------------------------- > Buying Friendship An Australian company called uSocial.net that started off selling online friends to people on Facebook is now selling bundles of followers to users of Twitter. Ref: NineMSN (Aus) > How People Now Spend Their Time A survey by Holiday Inns has uncovered some data on how people like to spend their evenings. Top of the list is working on a computer (23% of women and 24% of men), followed by watching films (15% women, 31% men), watching soaps (22% & 9%), reading (14% & 10%), going to the gym (3% & 4%) and phoning friends (2% & 1%). Ref: The Times (UK) > Question of the Month: Is Internet Speed Seasonal? OK, it sounds odd, but surely temperature would affect the conductivity of the copper wiring used to transmit data? Or how about human productivity, does this rise and fall according to temperature or weather conditions? Ref: Wired (US) > Word Detective: Cold Welding Did you know that if two bits of metal touch in space they become permanently bonded together? Why? Because the vacuum in space creates something known as cold welding. Something to do with free electrons and two processes known as metallic bonding and diffusion bonding apparently. Ref: Cosmos (Aus) > Chill-out Music A school in the UK (West Park School in Derby) has found that playing classical music to students while they write out the words to Jerusalem by William Blake has reduced unruly behaviour by more than 50%. Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK) > Proportional Justice A court in Switzerland recently imposed a fine on a speeding motorist that was based not only on the speed of the car but the income of the driver. Commonplace in parts of Scandinavia, this kind of income-related justice may soon become more common. Ref: Financial Times (UK) > The Cost of Computing In the late 1950s and early 1960s, an IBM 1401 supercomputer could run 4,000 calculations per second and cost over $1million in today's money. A mobile phone from 2010 runs 1 billion calculations per second and costs as little as $50. Ref: Visions of the Future (BBC) > A Simple Sign Works Wonders Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have found that placing a sign in a washroom reminding people to wash their hands with soap means that more people will do so. In cases where the sign was removed, only 65% of women and 31% of men did so. Ref: International Herald Tribune (US) > Handheld Wind Power Following on from the idea of using tiny solar powered devices to charge mobile phones, a gadget called the HyMini allows you to generate both solar and wind power to power a battery, which can in turn be used to power most gadgets. Ref: Fast Thinking (Aus) > Extreme Consumers Passionate, fanatical and heavy users of a company's products may be a key to growth according to study carried out in Europe, Japan and China. Such extreme users usually represent around 5% of all users but according to the study, only 18% of companies have thought specifically about targeting this group. Ref: Harvard Business Review (US) --------------------------------- : FAST FACTS Users of social networks are 30% less likely to know their next-door neighbour than non-users of social networks. Ref: Pew Research Center (US) Almost 1 in 3 women in the US becomes pregnant before they reach the age of 20. Ref: The Observer (UK) 80% of people in the UK are "amazed by the achievements of science" yet only 42% think "the benefits of science are greater than any harmful effect". Ref: British Survey of Public Attitudes (2008) 1 in 3 people that took the UK citizenship test in 2009 failed. Ref: BBC News (UK) UK hospitals made more than 100 million pounds from parking fees during 2007. Ref: Daily Mail (UK) Outside of warfare, governments murdered 7.3% of their populations through famine, genocide, labour camps and other crimes during the 20th Century. In the 19th Century the figure was 3.7% and in the 17th it was 4.9%. Ref: The Cato Institute (US) In 1986 there were 86 cities with populations in excess of 1 million people. By 2015 there will be 550. Ref: A Brief History of the Future by Jacques Attali --------------------------------- : BOOK OF THE MONTH "Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century" by Nandan Nilekani --------------------------------- : WEB SIGHT OF THE MONTH 50 great examples of information graphics http://blogof.francescomugnai.com /2009/04/50-great-examples-of- infographics/ --------------------------------- : QUOTE OF THE MONTH "Sometimes, paranoids just have all the facts" - William S. Burroughs --------------------------------- : PREDICTION OF THE MONTH Australia will receive 40% less snow by the year 2060. Ref: Griffith University (Queensland) --------------------------------- : STILL HUNGRY? You might not know this, but brainmail is put together using all the leftover bits from the What's Next trends report. So if this snack-sized newsletter is leaving you a bit hungry, go to www.nowandnext.com for something more substantial (and that's free too). --------------------------------- : LOOKING FOR AN INSIGHTFUL AND ENTERTAINING SPEAKER? If you are considering a futurist speaker for your next event ask your speaker agency about Richard Watson or contact him direct via www.nowandnext.com. Richard is the creator of brainmail (along with help from Phil, Matt and occasionally Corrina). Richard's recent speaker clients have included IBM, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Samsung, CSIRO, The Welsh Government Assembly and Procter and Gamble. --------------------------------- : SMALL PRINT The material appearing in brainmail is sourced from a variety of reliable publications worldwide. However, brainmail cannot guarantee the truthfulness of stories and a degree of commonsense should be applied before quoting or using any of this material in a commercial context. If something appears to be too good to be true it probably is.